I received the following email today on the subject of earthquake survival. I would also add that in Isaiah 26:20, God tells us to shut the door of our room and wait it out. Maybe shutting the door adds some strength to the wall.
Subject: How To Survive an Earthquake
Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing
in a doorway??
Boy! Is this ever an eye opener? Directly opposite of what
we've been taught over the years! I can remember in
school being told to, 'duck and cover' or stand in a
doorway during an earthquake. This guy's findings are
absolutely amazing. I hope we all remember his survival
method if we are ever in an earthquake!!!
Please read this and pass the info along to your family
members; itcould save their lives someday!
EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE: 'TRIANGLE OF
LIFE'
My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster
Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI),
the world's most experienced rescue team. The
information in this article will save lives in anearthquake.
I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with
rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in
several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams
from many countries.
I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for
two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the
world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.
The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in
Mexico Cityduring the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under
its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their
bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their
desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I
wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I
didn't at the time know that the children were told to
hide under something.
Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the
ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside
crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them.
This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'.
The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will
compact. The less the object compacts the larger the void,
the greater the probability that the person who is using
this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you
watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the
'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It
is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed
building.
TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
1) Most everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' WHEN
BUILDINGS COLLAPSEare crushed to death. People who get under
objects, like desks or cars, arecrushed.
2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the
fetal position.
You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural
safety/survivalinstinct. You can survive in a smaller void.
Get next to an object, next to asofa, next to a large bulky
object that will compress slightly but leave avoid next to
it.
3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to
be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with
the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does
collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden
building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick
buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will
cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete
slabs.
4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake
occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist
around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival
rate in earthquakes, simply by posting asign on The back of
the door of every room telling occupants to liedown on the
floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by
getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in
the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.
6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings
collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and
the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed
by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sidewaysyou will
be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be
killed!
7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different
'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from
the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of
the building continuously bump into each other until
structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who
get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair
treads – horribly mutilated. Even if the building
doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs
are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the
stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may
collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They
should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of
the building is not damaged.
8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them
If Possible - It is much better to be near the outside of
the building rather than the interior. The farther inside
you are from the outside perimeter of the building the
greater the probability that your escape route will be
blocked.
9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the
road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their
vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs
between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the
San Franciscoearthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles.
They were all killed. They could have easily survived by
getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles.
Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to
get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the
crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for
the cars that had
columns fall directly across them.
10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed
newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper,
that paper does not compact. Large voids are found
surrounding stacks of paper.
Spread the word and save someone's life... The Entire
world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared!
'We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to
fly'
In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival
methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government,
City of Istanbul, Universityof Istanbul Case Productionsand
ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We
collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten
mannequins did 'duck and cover,' and ten mannequins
I used in my 'triangle of life' survival method.
After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through
the rubble and entered the building to film and document the
results. The film, in which I practiced my survival
techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions,
relevant to buildingcollapse, showed there would have been
zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.
There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for
people using my method of the 'triangle of life.'
This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television
in Turkeyand the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the
USA,Canadaand Latin Americaon the TV program Real TV